The Kevin Sheehan Show - Sam Howell: QB1 in '23

Episode Date: January 17, 2023

Kevin and Thom today on a multitude of topics including pool, pinball, and the Cowboys' win last night over the Bucs to start. Then the boys discussed the report from CBS Sports that Ron Rivera has been telling offensive coordinator candidates that Sam Howell will be next year's starting quarterback. Plenty more on Cousins, the NFL Playoffs, Lamar Jackson, and John Angelos' comments to a Baltimore reporter about the state of the Orioles and more.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy is with me today. Tommy, this is a good one. It comes from one Mander fan.

He gave us five stars on Apple and wrote the following review. Kevin, your show is awesome. It's such a part of my daily routine that I actually had a dream the other day that you and Tom came by my house. We chatted sports and shared a cigar in my basement, played some pool and had a cold one, saddened when I woke up. Longtime D.C. sports fan, Mike. That's an awesome review. And I appreciate that. And I'm, you know what? I'm upset that you woke up. I would have loved to have had a cigar. You know, I'm not a big cigar smoker. But I would have had a cold one or four with you for sure. And you know what? I would have shot some pool. I'm not a great pool player. Are you a good pool player or not? I forget.

You know what's interesting? Yeah. My father was a great pool player. Really? When I mean great, I mean, he could run two racks. He was like, and we lived across the street from a pool hall in Brooklyn. He was really good. I don't have the skills to be a good pool player. You have good hand-eye coordination, a good steady hand. But I can teach somebody to be a good pool player. could? But I'm not a good pool player. Yeah, I could. Why? Just because you learn from your father how to do it? Yes. Yes. I mean, I know how to do it. I know what to do. I mean, I think I could beat the average show, but I wouldn't say I'm a good pool player. So, the friend of mine and my group of friends growing up, that was a good pool player, was a good darts player, was a very good pinball player, was my... I know. They're

Far-room athlete. Yeah, well, he was a good athlete, too. Andy was an excellent football player as well. But Andy Truesdale, who was one of my best friends from basically junior high, middle school, as they referred to it today, through college. We actually lived together at Maryland as well. He had a pool table in his house. So that's where we didn't have, we had a ping pong table in our house, and I was always a good ping pong player. but he had the pool table in his house,

and he was an excellent pool player. But Tommy really actually more interesting than that. It reminds me of something. So I'll get back to Andy in pinball in a moment. So my son moved in to this place downtown, like in Columbia Heights somewhere with his girlfriend. I don't know. It was six months ago, whatever.

And on Thanksgiving morning, because everybody was in town, the boys and I drove down, because my other two sons had not seen his place. In his place is a pinball machine. They rented the place. You know, it's a lower level of like a duplex, you know, kind of a thing down in D.C. And there was a pinball machine in the place that they rented.

And so they had no idea that their father could play some pinball. So we walked in. So we walked in and, you know, they started playing pinball. whole thing. And then I got a hold of it. And all three of my boys were like, whoa, what are you doing? What are you doing? You're letting the ball bounce on the flipper and you're bumping it over to the other flipper. And I'm like, just tell me what the targets are that I got to hit here. Tell me, tell me how many points before I get a free game. Well, that all came from really my good friend for many, many, many years. And Andy still, I still, you know, talk to him every once in a while.

We'll text back and forth with him every once in a while. When we were in junior high school, you know, seventh grade, eighth grade, you know, we did the thing. I mean, back in those days, parents didn't know where you were, what you were doing. No. I mean, hey, you know, we're going, we're going out, we're going to the dance, and then I'm sleeping over at Andy's house. I mean, they didn't know if I was at Andy's house or Tommy, you'll remember. remember this. Do you remember when Facebook first kind of came out and I got on it and

I don't even actually, I don't even want to talk about that actually. I don't want to bring it up because I don't think you don't want to bring that out. No, no, no, no, I don't want to bring that up. Anyway, whoever's house we were going to to sleep at in seventh and eighth grade, you know, you don't know what, you didn't know what house you were

going to end up at. I can tell you this. There were many late nights in either a bowling alley that had pinball machines or at 7-Eleven, which always had pinball machines, where we would walk in, you know, late at night, and Andy was the one that we would give the first quarter to. And Andy would get 10 free games up there almost always. Maybe, you know, sometimes it might cost us 75 cents or a dollar worth of quarters.

But he would get 10 games up there, and we'd be playing pinball for the next three hours for free. Yeah. This is my childhood, too. I mean, it's, didn't you love the sound that the pinball machine made when you won a game? Oh, that knock. That knock. Yeah, it was the best. That knock.

It was such a great sound. Great sound. It was a sound of winning. It was the sound of victory. Now, sometimes do you remember the way you could get an extra game without actually getting a score that got you an extra game? What happened at the end? of your third ball when it drained and it was game over. What happened?

Do you remember specifically? Well, if you're talking about what I think you are, if you match. Matched. Exactly. Yeah, the match. The match could give you a free. You could win a game through match. It would basically be like the last two digits of a number.

If it matched the last two digits of the score you got, you matched and you got a free game. And there were many times where it's like, oh, we're down to our last. quarter in our last game. And then it would match. And then we'd give that. And then we'd hand over we'd hand over the pinball flippers to Andy.

And he would somehow he would get work it up to the max was always 10 free games, right? That's pretty much how it maxed out on and then we'd all be playing. But I could always play that. Andy was the ace of

all of those games. But I was pretty good and then when I was doing with my boys, they're like, you know, they're just flipping away. Like, no, no, no, no. Right. They don't know. They don't know how to move the machine. You move the machine without tilting, without tilting. I'm tilting it, yeah.

Yeah, and then, and then, you know, that thing comes through and you let it, you know, slide off on one flipper onto the other side. You catch it, you hold it. And then you're looking to shoot at targets, or you're looking to shoot at a ramp or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're like the soccer player holding back. with the ball looking to see where to shoot it.

Check it at that point. Yeah, but the difference is we actually shot it towards the target. But yeah. Let me just share this with you. There was a play. You know, I lived a couple blocks from the local college, East Stroudsburg State College at the time. Great place. I used to hang out at the college all the time when I was a kid.

And they had a place called Buck's College Shop, which was a college hangout. And they had a pool table and they had pinball machines. And on Sundays, my parents would give me change to go to church, you know, to donate in the basket. And I'd walk to St. Matthews, a couple blocks away. And as soon as basically maybe 15, 20 minutes went by, I'd cut out, take my change that they gave me for the church and walk up to Buck's College shop on Sunday morning and play pinball. Of course. Yeah. Yes.

You know, the other thing we're forgetting about pinball is what you would have to get to get an extra ball. You know, that was always a key to getting points too, is to get the extra ball. You know, once you hit a certain number of targets, a certain number of times, it would qualify you for an extra ball. That was a big deal. Yeah. Tommy, there was one, and you know what? It's so funny when I was at my son's house on Thanksgiving morning and we were falling around with it. I was like, God, this is so much fun.

Like I could have sat there for like an hour and a half and played There were there there was a pinball machine specifically that I'll never forget and I just pulled it up on Twitter It's available like it's I could I could I could buy it right now it looks like for Well I don't know how much I could buy it for Evil Caneval there was a pinball game a pinball machine Oh I remember that I even evil can evil and that was always one of the two pinball machines and that were in the 7-11 on River Road in Bethesda.

And as a seventh-eighth grader, we would be sitting there playing that, and there was another machine, and the name was like, God, Andy would remember. I think it was like Vulcan or Vulcan or something like that. But Evil Caneval was the one I remember, and we would play that thing.

First of all, if you're a child of the 70s like me, evil-can-eval was a big deal. Oh, huge deal. Evil-Caneval lunchboxes. Evil Knievel. Everything. He was everywhere. Everywhere.

And by the way, here it is. Bally makes it. I wonder if I could buy this thing on like... Well, listen, if your sons are listening, I hope they're paying attention to know what to get you for Christmas. Yeah. I've got the perfect spot for it, too. There'd be a perfect spot for it.

But the... What was I going to say? I'm forgetting what I would say. I was going to say anyway. But, yeah, it was... What were you saying? before you just said if your sons are listening. What were you just saying? Well, actually, I wasn't saying anything. I was going to say in the house, you were talking.

Yeah. And now I'll talk. Yeah, go. And actually, not when I grew up, but in the house where my kids grew up, we had a Papa shot in the garage. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I was the, I was the person, you know, at the boardwalk with the Papa shot that, If somebody actually wanted to win a prize, they would say, Kevin, step up. We'll pay for it. You shoot. But, you know, those things were actually super hard because basically, you know. Basically, I don't think the rim was, I think the rim was smaller than the basketball. It wasn't smaller, but you had to get the kind of arc.

You had to get an arc where it actually like came down and literally went right through perfectly. I mean, because the rims were so hard. So if it hit the rim and bounced, it was going to roll off the rim. I forget what I was going to say. Oh, this is what I was going to say, Evil Knievel. This is what we were talking about. When I was a kid in the 70s, like every one of the boys in the neighborhood, you know, Tommy Aller and Andy Wright and me and Cutter Crampton

and all the kids in the neighborhood when I was a young kid, we all with our bikes, and I can remember specifically right in front of Tommy Oller's house, we set up a ramp and we set up like we had boxes and then another ramp and I mean we were killing ourselves you know coming down the hill going up the ramp like some wooden piece of cardboard with it with a landing on the other side I mean people were you know busting up knees and arms it didn't matter yeah you know that's what you did and we and I can remember like we put crates like milk crates up and it would be like how many you could jump on a bike. And Tommy, there was literally one of the,

I can remember the spot where we did it. It was downhill. Like you were picking up some real speed coming downhill going off that ramp, trying to land it on another ramp. And, you know, it wasn't like there was a big pillow or a cushion at the other end. It was the 70s, brother. You know, I love that Twitter account.

What's it called Super 70s or whatever? Yeah. They do a lot of that stuff. I follow them on Twitter. Absolutely. They do a lot of that stuff, and there's always a lot of evil-can-eval stuff on there. By the way, you know... I remember watching the Snake River Jump live when it happened on TV on ABC Wide World of Sports, and Howard Coasell called it. It didn't happen live on TV, though. It didn't happen. It was a close-circuit event. I watched it on Wide World of Sports.

A week later, they aired it. Just like the big fights, remember. That was a closed circuit. I'm almost positive that that's true. Because I didn't, you know, we didn't pay for it on closed circuit. My father was a big fight fan, but he wasn't about to pay for Evil Canevel's jump. But I think it was a week later on ABC Wide World of Sports that we watched it with Frank Gifford, basically, who was remember very good friends with Evil Caneval.

By the way, his son just died. Evil Caneval's son, Robbie Ceneville, who was also... Yeah, Robbie Ceneville, who was a daredevil. He just died two days ago. That's right. You're right. I didn't know that. I just was putting up Evil Ceneville, and Robbie Ceneville's name pumped up. But Snake River Jump, I think that was close circuit.

I'm pretty sure it was, and that we watched it a week later. I don't know. Let's find out. I'm looking for like just a Wikipedia on it, and they just have, yeah. All I remember about that is he pulled the shoot when the rocket was still on the launch pad. It was still on the ramp. He didn't want to have any part of trying to go over that thing. Right?

Yeah, it was closed circuit. You found it? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that that parish, that shoot came out when that thing was still on the ramp. Yeah, it came out pretty quick. He wasn't going to take any chances to go into the side of the canyon there. No, no. No, he was going to float down and it was a bad, you know, landing, but he survived it.

Remember, like, they were concerned that if he ended up in the river, the river was a very dangerous river, if my memory serves me correctly, with rip tides and other things. So they were concerned that if he ended up in the river, he wouldn't survive. But he never made it to the river. the rocket that he was in basically he pulled the shoot and the thing came down on the same side that he was launched on. Yes. It was very traumatic for a young child in the 70s when you're thinking he's going to jump this thing and then you find out he didn't even get to the other side. You know, it's got to be an age thing.

Why everything seemed more vivid and traumatic back then? Because there was nothing else going on. there was no other I mean there were three networks you know this thing was a pop culture phenomenon remember the buildup to this thing yeah absolutely

I mean it was huge it was massive yes you know I just pulled up on YouTube some of his jumps the Caesar's Palace jump was the most violent where he literally should have killed himself

there were several of them where he nearly died, but Caesar's Palace came long before the Snake River jump, I think. He was something else, too. Like, he had a personality, too. You know, he had... I mean, there was a TV movie made about him. Wasn't there a movie out there about him, too? Maybe, I don't know.

There may have been. Yeah. He died in 2007, born in 38, 68 to 62, so he died. He died at 69 years old. You know what? He probably... In a life he lived, that's a pretty good life. He made it probably a lot longer than most people thought he would.

Yes. He was from Montana. Anyway. So anyway, by the way, thank you very much for the review, Mike, that was very nice. So Dallas was awesome last night. I don't, I, I had like a bunch of friends that were telling me, God, I don't want the Cowboys to win. And I'm like, really? You really still feel that way? And then they thought about it and they're like, eh, actually I don't feel that way.

I'm like, I don't feel that way at all. Like, I bet Tampa, so I was, I didn't give them out as a smell test pick. I did bet them and I bought the half point plus three, never had a chance. And I did like Tampa going in. I actually thought they had a legitimate chance because I didn't trust Dack and I didn't trust Mike McCarthy. But before I get to the game, I have not felt that way about the Cowboys in a couple of years now. And you know what way I'm talking about is a lifelong Redskins fan, the hatred, like anybody but the Cowboys. You know, I was never a subscriber to 2 and 14 would be fine if the two wins over the Cowboys.

That's stupid. But, you know, when Washington has been out of it, as they typically have for so long, rooting for the Cowboys to lose in the playoffs. I used to do that. I have no emotion over the Cowboys winning or losing unless I bet on them or against them. That's part of the quad of teams that people root for to lose, the Cowboys, the Yankees. Duke and the Lakers. Yeah, but the Cowboys I'm talking about specific to being a Redskins fan. Right.

Yeah. But there's a lot of fans besides Redskins fans. I think generally the rest of the NFL wants to see the Cowboys. Agreed. I agree with that. On a regular basis. But for Washington fans, it's always been, oh, my God, they can't win. And rooting, like, there were many years where,

I was like, look, we're not in it or we lost. I don't want them to win. I mean, I don't want their fan base to win. I mean, I texted Clay and my buddy Kenny last night, and I'm like, best of luck. Like, I didn't think they were going to win. I thought it was going to be fun to come in here today and say, oh, my God. I mean, Jerry's going to clean house. But the point is I don't have, it's relational to my lack of real passion for Washington.

That's the point I'm trying to make. Anyway, they were awesome last night. Dak Prescott was, he played one of the best games I have ever seen him play. I thought Tampa's defense came out ready. First couple of series, Dak looked tight, the bucks looked tight, and then he got on a roll. And, I mean, at one point he completed, I think, 11 or 12 balls in a row. He was awesome.

He was awesome. They were awesome. They were great on defense. They also were playing a team, and I reminded myself of this when the game was over. You liked Tampa, you bet Tampa, and yet three weeks ago you kept telling everybody that you thought the Saints and or Panthers would give the Cowboys a better game, which is true. But when Brady threw for 440 and three touchdowns to Mike Evans against the Panthers three weeks ago to clinch the playoff berth, I thought it's, Brady and the Cowboys are chokers. But give them credit, they were really good last night, really good. Do you have anything on the game? Yeah, they were. Did you watch the game? Oh, no, I mean, I watched it. No, I watched the game. I watched the game. All I could think of was

watching the commanders fans watching this and say, look, our boy Sam Howe dropped 26 on this team. Look at that. You mean next to your story? There were commander fans everywhere saying, oh, boy, our guy beat these guys into a pope. Look at this. Next year's starter. Next year's de facto starter.

Yes, the anointed one. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is a brain, this is a brain damage fan base, Kevin. It's brain damage. I've been trying to tell you there are a lot of dummies now in the fan base. It used to be really smart. A lot of dummies.

They can't. not everybody to embrace the guy who completed 11 passes well we're going to say they've seen him complete 11 NFL passes we're going to say the sam howl story for the next segment but i i i i might mccarthy did say after the game we got our asses kicked last week by by Washington and that that really woke us up and we were ready to to bounce back off that look in watching that game last week coolly i think nailed it Dallas never thought they had a chance to win the division going into that game. They never thought Philadelphia had any chance to lose to a Giants team, not playing any of their starters. And they looked like they were sleepwalking through the game. They did. Like that team last night, just on defense last night from the jump, offensively, they looked a little bit. Tommy, let me back up.

This was the most nerve-wracking game for a Cowboys fan in a long time. I mean, everybody, every Dallas fan I know, including my buddy Kenny said, I've not been this nervous for a game in forever. Like the pressure on Prescott, on McCarthy, on Jerry Jones to win that game last night was unbelievable. But even when DAC showed nerves early in the first two drives, they went three and out, three and out. So to Tampa, three and out, three and out. Dallas's defense was swarming, swarming. Parsons, Vander, Vandresh looked great being back in the lineup, Barr.

they looked really good, as good as they've looked in a while. And then Prescott got on that role, and we'll talk about the kicker here in a moment. Tampa drove it down trailing 6-0, and they had a chance to take the lead, and it was early second quarter, and Brady threw that interception. You know, late first quarter, it was one of the first two plays of the second quarter. And he threw an interception into the end zone. That's his first red zone interception in like four years. And that, I mean, I think if Tampa scores there, there's a little more pressure.

I mean, the way the game played out, it didn't seem like Tampa was really competitive. But, wow. I mean, Dak Prescott, good for him, a lot of pressure on him. He's been turning the ball over left and right. He's looked like he's been playing nervously and scared, including last week at Washington. He ended up with a 96.5 QBR. He became the first quarterback or the third. quarterback maybe in postseason history to throw for four, rush for one.

He was outstanding and was in total command of everything. I mean, every time they gave him a look, he was up there at the line of scrimmage, changing the play to something that appeared. He was changing the play to something that was wide open. And then on the flip side, Brady threw 66 passes in the game. I know. Do you know, this year, Tommy, Tom Brady, threw 50 or more passes in a football game.

I had it earlier. One, two, three, four, five, six times. Six times in 17 games. He threw 50 or more in a football game. That is insane. Last night, 66 was the most. He was 35 of 66. He threw 31 incompletions in a game.

31. I mean, that's unheard of with both teams, usually, although the game between Miami and Buffalo, Cooney and I pulled it, pointed out yesterday. Skyler Thompson and Josh Allen combined for 43 incompleted passes in the game. But in this one, the two combined quarterbacks, you know, they combined for Brady through 31, 39 incompletions. That's crazy. Do you think he's done or do you think he's going to play again? I think he's going to play again. Look, he's a guy who loves the locker room.

That's what this is all about. It's not about money. It's not about his legacy. You can't, he knows that he can't replicate whatever emotional boost he gets from being in the locker room with other football players. I think that's his juice. I think that that's what gets him excited still. And he's not going to give that up until he has to.

The farther away he is from that performance as time goes by, the more he'll convince himself that he can still play, that it was an aberration and that he's ready for another shot. So yeah, I think he's going to play. I think he's going to play too. I hope he doesn't do what he did last year, is retire and then come back. You know, I think he hopefully learned last year.

I think the locker room part is true. I think it's the competition. I think he's just one of these people that will not know what to do with his life when he's not competing. And all of those players, they always say, you know, whatever they end up doing in life after professional sports does not equal, you know, the juice of that level of competition, whether it's in business or anything else. But think about him in the locker room.

He dwarfs everybody else in that locker room when it comes to stature and status. Just dwarfs them. I mean, the other players sometimes probably sit there when they come to the team and say, I can't believe I'm in a locker room with Tom Brady. Oh, yeah, sure. You know? Sure. I mean, but to him, I think, and I don't know, Brady.

But I know about his work ethic from people who have played with him. I think he likes at least the idea that he's not Tom Brady, you know, the people who wear the C's part for him in a locker room. I think he likes the idea that he's one of the guys. Yeah. Even though he's not. Right. You know.

There's, I mean, a lot of the, you know, NFL people all believe. that he is going to play next year. And the team that's been discussed the most, he's a free agent, and there's a no franchise clause, so the Bucks can't franchise him. I, most, not everybody, the Raiders are the leading candidate. You know, the Raiders are the leading candidate for him

because of Josh McDaniel. You know, to get Josh McDaniels to coach him, and, you know, they've made magic together. you know, on offense. And they've got Devante Adams there, and it's Vegas, and so people are talking about the Raiders. Personally, I don't, I think if any, if there's a team, and I've seen a couple of reporters mention them,

depending on Tua's status with regard to the concussions, Brady and Miami with Waddle and Hill, I mean, see, here's the thing about Brady. Like you may say you watched him last night, and I saw a lot of people say this, he looked done. I mean, he looked like he didn't want to get hit. I don't know that I agree with that. He didn't look good last night. It was not a good performance last night.

He is still one of the best 14 quarterbacks in the NFL. He's still right now, especially this year with some of the drop-off in quarterback performances, he's still probably somewhere between 10 and 14 right now. He might be borderline top 10. And I'm talking about for next year as a 46-year-old. So I, if you've got to... Kevin.

He's no Sam Howe, okay? Let's not go overboard here. So you would keep Powell over Brady? Yeah, me too. Of course. Why wouldn't you? Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't even consider it.

Brady's not coming here. Listen, I think they should tell Brady that he can come here and he can be the offensive coordinator. How about the head coach? How about you can be part owner? Yes. You know, here's another situation with him. If San Francisco doesn't win the Super Bowl,

now Brock Purdy, we'll get to this when we get to Sam Hal, Brock Purdy played pretty damn well and has played pretty damn well. And maybe they found the next Brady. I mean, not physically in stature, but in terms of, you know, late round pick that nobody thought anything of. Brian Greasy apparently was the guy that identified him and said, we got to pick him. But let's just say they go out to the Cowboys this week. By the way, the 49ers are only four-point favorites over the Cowboys. I thought it was going to be every bit of

five and a half six. You know, would Kyle say, hey Tom, Brock will sit behind you next year? Let's go win the Super Bowl next year. And that's home for him. No, no, no. No. Kyle has to be the top dog on that offense. He didn't get this far to be a, you know, Tom Brady's clipboard holder. I don't know. His father tried to get Peyton Manning to come to Washington. And Kyle hasn't won one yet. You know, he hasn't won the Super Bowl.

I mean, I know his father had already won two Super Bowls. You know, his father was near the end of his career. and as much as Peyton Manning was a god at that point, there were a lot of questions about whether he could play because of his physical stature, and he's still not on the same level as Tom Brady is. The thing about it, though, I think personally the ship has already sailed on Kyle, meaning I think people recognize how Brady is.

And, you know, so do I. So I don't know that he would be insecure about, well, you could only win it when you got Brady to. that one year. Anyway, it sounds like Vegas, Miami, if I were Brady, I'd be thinking about Miami. Remember, isn't that why they lost the draft choice because of the tampering with Brady when he was in New England? Yes. They might as well get their money for it this time. Well, let's get to, you know, one of the real exciting stories of 2023, Sam Howell, to be the starter. At least that's what apparently the commanders are telling prospective offensive coordinators.

We'll get to that story that came out over the weekend next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show is presented by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll match your first deposit, $1 for dollar all the way up to $1,000. They're just going to double your first deposit. So if you put $500 in, you'll have $1,000 in your account if you use my promo code, Kevin, D.C.

All four games, the point spreads and totals are out. Wow, man, at my bookie, San Francisco is just a three and a half point favorite. Wow. They've won 11 games in a row. The total is 46.5. By the way, every single game over the weekend, with the exception of last night's game, went over the total. And we didn't talk about this in the last segment. I can't believe we dropped the ball on this.

The only reason last night's game didn't go over the total, which was basically like 45 and a half, 46, was because Brett Mahar, or mayor, however you pronounce it, set an NFL record with missing four PATs. Apparently it hasn't been done according to ESPN stats and information since 1932. Was that the Boston Braves? At that point, were they the Boston Redskins? I don't know. They were to Boston Braves in 32. Yeah. The dude missed four PATs in a row.

And McCarthy wouldn't let him kick that short field goal either. They went for that fourth down, and then he finally made the last one. You talk about the shanks. Well, he had the shanks on the first two, hooked the third one in golf vernacular. Mr. Newman, that's for you. And then the last one he missed. was off the upper portion of the right-up right. I mean, what do you do if you're a Dallas fan, or if you're the Cowboys, with respect to a kicker this week?

I mean, that guy clearly had a mental issue. He cleared it by making the last one. He did. But that was crazy. So the game would have gone over the total if he had just made really one of them, depending where your number was. I mean, that should have been a 35-14 final if he makes all the extra points over the total. but that ends up going under,

and it was the only game of the six to go under the total. Now, somebody sent me something on Twitter and said, doesn't that mean the books took a bath? You always say the public likes the overs. That's true. The public loves the overs. But remember, this was an under year. We were way down on points this year,

and a lot of these games went under. And so a lot of the betting public, remembered, you know, this year and all these unders and saw some pretty high totals, like 47 and a half, Jacksonville, 49 in Seattle, San Francisco, 48 in Minnesota and the Giants. And like they bet under. I bet over Cincinnati, Baltimore at 40 because I knew people were playing the under on that game. So not as much as usual, but still, yes, the public prefers to bet overs. It's easier to root for touchdowns and scores than it is to sit there and,

Route for the clock to run quickly on three-yard runs. Anyway, the 49ers at my bookie, three and a half-point favorites. The bills are five-point favorites over the Bengals. The Eagles are seven and a half-point favorites over the Giants, and the Chiefs are eight and a half-point favorites over Jacksonville, with a total of 53 in that one. I was looking at all the weather because you've got four outdoor games. Kansas City perfect.

Philly on Saturday night, perfect. Buffalo could have, you know, some light snow showers, combined snow and rain showers, but no big storm for Buffalo, Cincinnati. And San Francisco, supposed to be lovely. By the way, that weather scare for Santa Clara on Saturday, the heavy flooding rains, I mean, the sun was out for half of that game. But anyway, my bookie.ag, Kevin D.C. is the promo code. Get after that for all of your betting needs.

So this guy, Jonathan Jones, had the story from this weekend titled Commanders Informing Potential Offensive Coordinator Candidates, Sam Howl is their starting QB. I'll read from his story. The Washington commanders are in search of a new offensive coordinator in the days following the firing of Scott Turner. and according to sources, the commanders are letting potential candidates know who their likely starting quarterback in 2020 will be. Sam Howell, who started and won the 17th game of the season for Washington, is expected to be QB1 when the commanders begin off-season work in the new league year. That would seemingly take the commanders both out of the running for a veteran in the trade market and using their number 16 overall pick in the 2023 draft on a rookie. The other part of his story was he wrote, that game, meaning the Cowboys game, along with the year of practice, was enough for Washington to feel confident going into the offseason with Hal as QB1 and with the hope of resigning Taylor Heineke to a backup deal. So what do you want to say about this?

Well, I'm just stunned at the reaction to this. The celebratory embracing of this, at least from what I saw on social media, by Washington commanders fans who were very, very excited about the 11 past completion performance they saw, the one time they saw Sam Howe in an NFL game, and are willing to go ahead and put their team folks for next season in the hands. of this kid without blanking. You know, heaven forbid, you bring in a veteran to compete for the job. No, no, no.

Heaven forbid, okay, let's say by the time they pick in the 16th, in the 16th pick, there's not a great number one quarterback available. If I'm them, I'm picking a quarterback in either the second or third round to compete with this guy. Okay. So there's a comp, I mean, Ron Rivera talked. couple years ago about how he loved to really have a quarterback competition. Anointing a guy number one, basically giving him the job to lose, is not the same as a competition.

Telling people that he's going to have to earn it, it's not the same thing as a competition. I mean, it's just stunning. I mean, I don't know how you don't plan going into next year with having a veteran. I'm not talking about some kind of stupid Carson-Wen trade. okay. I'm talking about a caretaker veteran. Yeah, a Jacoby, Jacoby Brissette, an Andy Dalton type, for $4 million a year, five million a year, yes. Yes. And again, within the first three rounds, a quarterback picked to also compete as well.

You know, and it's just, it's not that the team's reaction, the team's decision is foolish enough. but the fans reaction here's what I get from some of Kevin they say well if he has to work out you know the team will be sold and then a new owner next year can get you know can go ahead and

you know have a new coach pick one they're just willing to just give away next season everybody I mean they're just willing just give it away you know just say I mean like like winning

has been a luxury here so they can afford to just toss away season and not have it count for anything. Yeah. So I'm surprised that you didn't answer first with the following, because I thought your reaction to this was going to be similar to my first reaction, which it rarely is, but sometimes I'm on that, you know, incredible Laverro, super sharp, you know, brain wave situation.

To me, it's just, first of all, let's assume this is true. Let's assume the report is true. And that, you know, there could be some look, you know, Mike Shula. We got Sam here. We're going to give him a shot. We'll probably go out and get like a Dalton or a Brissette, you know, to have in the event that he isn't the guy, but we really want to give him a chance. we actually like him.

I mean, versus just kind of anointing him QB1 and that's it. But to me, the part that I was expecting you to say is, what happened in a week? A week ago yesterday, they didn't even want to play them in the season finale against the Cowboys. I mean, Ron wanted to start Taylor. Logan Paulson said, Logan Paulson told Craig Hoff. on our radio station that he was told that the team doesn't think that Sam's anywhere near ready enough. And that's why he's not going to play because they fear that he's not going to be ready

enough to be functional in an NFL game. I mean, and all this, I mean, which to me was the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Like, you have to, you know, take that final game against Dallas, where Dallas was supposedly playing for something. And you've got to find out all you can about the quarterback position, and you already know all you need to know about the other two guys on the roster. There is only one you didn't know anything about with respect to him playing a regular season game. If he's really, really behind the eight ball and you fear putting him out there, just simplify it like it's a preseason game.

He played in the second halves of three preseason games. He was your freaking backup quarterback for seven weeks. What would have happened had you had to put him into a game if Heineke had been hurt? Whatever that game plan was for him, just give it to him and get him out there. The whole thing last week was, it was mind-boggling to me. And that's, by the way, I am still very suspicious. I'm suspicious that Ron was kind of hell-bent in his initial reaction to start Taylor against the Cowboys. because he thought that was his best chance not to have a losing record.

And he wanted to get to 8-8-1. He's heard enough about all of the losing records, and he didn't want to have three straight losing records. But I digress. If they really were legitimately concerned, or some were and some weren't whatever, how did we get from there to he's the QB1, we're telling offensive coordinator, you know,

possibilities. He's the QB1 after 11 completions in a game last week against Dallas. Look, I'm intrigued. And people will strike out against you if you bring this up. Oh, I don't care. I mean, it's like, but I'm just amazed. I don't care about it. I've said to you before. I'm just amazed at the reaction.

I'm like you stick it up for Sonny Jervinson for crying out loud. I mean, but the people that are less. You know, two-thirds of this fan base has been runoff over the last many, many years. Okay, let's just call it the last 10 for sure. Because 10 years ago, 8 years, you know, 10 years ago for 2012, they had a filled up building and they did a 50 rating for the playoff game against Seattle, which, by the way, I can't believe you and I have not done a 10-year retrospective on the Seattle-Washington playoff game. Although Griffin's been tweeting enough for all of us over the last couple of days.

It doesn't really still Lamar Jackson. Yes, the protector of quarterback. But many of what I would call the higher IQ fans are gone. And they're gone because they were smart enough to say, I'm not going to be duped like this anymore. I'm not saying everybody that's left is a dummy. But we used to have truly, I think, one of the sharpest fan bases in the league. I don't feel that way anymore. But I love having the conversations.

and a lot of the conversations you and I have with people are really smart conversations, and not everybody's that way. I'm not casting a wide net over everybody, but I will tell you that even the team understands that what they lost was, A, their highest performing season ticket holder in terms of how many seats, et cetera. And in my opinion, we've got a fan base that's been dumbed down. in recent years. I mean, look, I've said it, this is not a new thing for me. The idiots that for months said, get on board or get out with the Carson Wentz thing, you guys honestly are some of the

dumbest MFers of all time. How you, and by the way, this team didn't see the billboard sticking up on 495 saying two other franchises got rid of them at great expense. Hello, be careful. No, whatever. We had people telling, actually they were all telling me to move to Minnesota and cover Kirk, which actually was funny. And I had so much follow-up on the conversation from yesterday with Cooley. Actually, some of you really were like defending Cooley and coming after me for actually being critical of Kirk's last throw. We'll get to that actually in the final segment.

But anyway. So number one, it's like how did we get from where we were last month? Monday to, yeah, no, he's our starting quarterback. Did you see him play against Dallas? And we all, like this guy wrote, John Jones wrote, it wasn't just last Sunday, it was practice all year. They've seen this coming. They've known this.

Can you, and number, okay, so that's point one. Point two. Is that a real good pitch to an offensive coordinator? Hey, got your QB1 already. Who is it? It's our fifth rounder from last year, Sam Hal. Oh, how did he play this year? Well, we put him in in the final game of the year.

We were reluctant to do so, but we did, and he played great. Point number three, this is, to me, another big part of this. Like, what's Ron doing? Like, he's playing with fire here because he's a lame duck, for the most part, heading into next year. Maybe that's not the right description because we don't know what the new owner will feel. But for the most part, the new owner, if there is a new owner, is probably going to want to hire.

his own group of people. So for Ron, does he really want to go out with a developmental quarterback? Like, I understand they want to run the ball seven times to one, you know, seven runs for every one pass, or 30 runs to every one pass. They want to be a run first team, exaggerating, obviously. But do they actually think like they can recreate what's going on in San Francisco? there's a big difference between Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan, and then Sam Howell and Ron Rivera, and whoever they hire is an offensive coordinator.

That is a, what's going on in San Francisco right now is an aberration. It's not going to become the norm, okay? Like Brock Purdy, by the way, was a decent college quarterback, and they felt in training camp, I heard Matt Hasselback talking about this over the weekend. He said I was at San Francisco's training camp, and they were all telling me how much the seventh rounder Purdy had blown them away. Like they were talking about him back then. But this is a, I mean, this is a diamond in the rough with a great team,

not a good team, a great team, and a first-rate coaching staff and organization. That's not Washington. You're not going to, if you think, like, by the way, I want to make one of the way, I want to make one thing clear. I have no idea what Sam Howell is going to be. I don't. I'm intrigued. Yes, me too. He's athletic. He could be a good quarterback. He could be. But you haven't seen anything to make that judgment yet. No. And here's the thing. If he is, if he turns out that Sam Howell ends up becoming a good quarterback like a, you know, a legitimate top half of the league starting quarterback, it's going to be developmental. It's going to take time.

My point, Tommy, this next point is, next year, Ron, if this is truly the way they're going, is a developmental year. They're not going to win. They're not going to be in the postseason. They've got a great defense. They have some playmakers on offense. They are in a division right now, people. Did you see the Giants? Do you know how much cap space they have?

Do you know how well coached they are? You do now. Philadelphia, Dallas. I mean, if tack plays. if last night was the beginning of a run of DAC, I mean, so next year you're fighting with a pretty good team, but a developmental quarterback for 500 at best maybe? That's interesting to me.

The other thing is, and Ben wrote about this in his column in the athletic. It was funny because remember I told you that I counted seven times that the word formula was used in that press conference last week. Ben wrote Ron Rivera and Martin Mayhew capped the commander's frustrating playoff less campaign with a news conference last week. The head coach and general manager were promptly

dinged or given ample side eye for skimping on specifics the way some juice cocktail beverages include minimal juice. Instead, they substituted buzzwords like process 13 mentions, evaluation nine, and formula seven. The formula being

you know, the two to one, we're going to be run heavy. Everything they did last off season said, we're going to throw the football, but all of a sudden, their philosophy is run first. Okay, whatever. I think they were just rambling. And then Ben wrote, the most important word was uttered twice, budget. They're not, the reason Sam Howe might be the anointed number one is because he's going to make $900,000 next year.

And Dan's, Dan is selling, if he's selling the team, is putting a, spending freeze on this thing. I mean, there are going to be things that they have to do, okay, but they're not going out and paying Derek Carr's contract. They're not going out in trading a bunch of picks for, you know, Lamar Jackson and then paying him $40 million a year. Like those options might be, I'm saying might be, because I don't know for sure, but this kind of, you know, kind of coincides with this story. Maybe he has to go this route. The other thing I wanted to say is just, to me, the right thing for them, if they can't get and swing big, because Aaron Rogers, to me, is not going to be available.

The Packers can't afford to move on from him because of the dead cap hit. And Aaron Rogers can't afford to not take the money that they're going to pay him next year. I think Aaron Rogers is back in Green Bay. That would be the one that would really excite me. Derek Carr doesn't excite me that much. He excites coolly. but not me as much. I think ultimately what will happen here is you bring back Sam Howell.

You go out, you spend $3 million, $4 million, $5 million, whatever it takes to get an Andy Dalton or Jacoby Berset, and you go with that. You let Taylor Heineke test the open market. If Taylor doesn't get what he thinks he can get and you can sign him to be your backup quarterback instead of going out and getting a veteran, I would not be in favor of that because I think you need a veteran

that can run an offense that can, actually have really good offensive days. Brissette and Dalton are capable if you put a good team around them of winning. Andy Dalton went to the playoffs a bunch of times in Cincinnati with AJ Green and a really good defense. So I would prefer that route. And by the way, it's probably going to be about the same cost. Taylor Heineke is going to get a $4 or $5 million backup quarterback contract somewhere. He probably thinks the spot rack number of $23 million a year is real.

No, that's not real. He's not getting $23 million a year from anybody. And those of you that have sent me that link, I mean, use your own brain. The guy that was the only guy not to throw for 700 yards against the Vikings, do you think anybody's giving him $23 million to be a starting quarterback next year? You're out of your freaking mind. But I also, by the way, with Taylor as a backup, if they went that route with Howell, At least the fans, the 35,000, 16,000 of which are dumb-dums,

at least they're not going to chant Heineke, Heineke after Derek Carr or Jacoby Brissette or Andy Dalton or Jimmy Garoppolo throw their first in completion. With Sam Howe, they're going to be patient and they're going to be like, all right, let's see what this kid's got over, you know, eight games, 10 games, something like that. I don't know. The whole thing strikes me as. Budget-related, you know, they don't feel like there's anybody out there they could actually get. And now we're going to start building up Sam Hal as, well, obviously, we drafted him in the fifth round. Obviously, he's going to get a shot. Did you see him against the Cowboys?

But I don't think anybody two weeks ago thought that this was the path they were going to take. I don't think anybody did. No. No. Not the path that you would think a coach fighting for his job would take. No. My preference, honestly, Sam Howe and Andy Dalton for $4 million, $5 million a year. Brissette would be fine. So if you realize that Howe really isn't the guy, you let him battle it out. And if he's really not the guy, then you've got a veteran quarterback that can run an NFL offense that can make every throw with a really good defense, with playmakers on offense.

and you take all of that, you know, Carson Wentz money, and you invest in offensive line, D-line, et cetera. That would be my preference if there's not a big swing out there to make. The big swing, I'd still be in favor of because I still think that that is the way to have a sustained winner, unless, of course, you're Kyle Shannon. It's Lamar Jackson, the big swing. So we haven't talked about that, and I had that on my list of things to talk about. Can we save that for the final segment?

because I do think it's an interesting conversation. Is he worth the big swing? I don't think they, I think Washington's out because I just don't think there's no way, Tommy, Dan is going to give up two first rounders after Baltimore franchise tags him, give up two first rounders, and then pay him $45 million a year

with $185 million guaranteed where he's going to have to put all that money in escrow. That's not happening. There's no chance of that happening. I wanted to just read, real quickly, this tweet that I got from Blaine. Sheehan, you were way wrong. Cooley was right.

Did you see this video? And he linked me to the Kurt Warner video, which made the rounds yesterday about Kirk's final throw in the Minnesota Giants game. Anyway, he went on a little bit longer. So yesterday, Tommy, if you didn't listen to the show, and I'm assuming you didn't. I mean, I was very critical of Kirk's final throw.

I mean, what really hurt for me is that he hasn't made that kind of a throw or that kind of a decision in years. But the narratives out there that that's what he does. Somehow they had eight comebacks this year and he set the NFL record for comebacks. And yet he chokes and he checks down all the time. So I said I was really disappointed. I understand that he was trying to put the ball in play, that he was under duress, which he was. Dexter Lawrence was in his face within a second. And Cooley said, no, the play design was bad.

And, you know, the tight end, T.J. Hawkinson, if that was a choice route, ran the wrong route, ran the wrong thing. And the only, and Justin Jefferson was not a possibility. Now, Cooley said if he could have worked back to KJ. Osborne, that was the point. And then Kurt Warner put out a similar video, kind of describing it almost exactly the way Cooley did. And then last night on the ESPN set, I mean, Alex Smith and Bougarman. McFarland and RG3 all came flying to the defense of Cousins. I was surprised. You know, especially with RG3, RG3 said, does anybody know that this dude had eight comebacks this year? And then he did say, that's the regular season. You got to win in the

playoffs. And Alex Smith jumped up and said, anybody that watched this game that thought this was on Kirk Cousins doesn't know anything about football. That defense gave up 436 yards and 31 points. to the Giants. In fact, in two games against the Giants, they gave up 868 yards in 55 points. I've been telling you all year long how bad Minnesota's defense was. Anyway, a lot of people, I was surprised.

A lot of people came to Kirk's defense on that final throw. I'm not changing my mind, though. I think Kirk would tell you, I got to just throw it to Justin Jefferson. I got to heave it up there. on fourth and 18 in Buffalo, the catch of the year on fourth down on a play where the game's over. If I don't put the ball in play to my best receiver, Jefferson made the catch of the year in the game of the year.

He did it on fourth and nine a couple of times in the indie comeback. He did it a couple of times against Detroit on fourth down. He had a chance, even though it was double borderline triple coverage, and it would have been intercepted or incomplete, most likely. It wasn't a 50-50 ball. Cooley said, you know, it was more like a 28-8. 80 ball, all right? But you, that's the way you go down. You go down in that spot giving the best player on your team, one of the best players in the league, a chance to go up and draw a PI, to make a one-handed grab like he did in Buffalo, because once he threw it to Hawkinson,

Hawkinson was equally thinks he should have been able to break the tackle and get the first down. I disagree with that. So Blaine, I disagree with your, your tweet. but appreciate you listening. For everybody else that thinks they actually lost the game for Kirk, sorry. Can't help you. Did you have any thoughts, by the way, just on any of the other playoff games, or you want to save that for the final segment when we talk about Lamar and the Angelo's person? Well, I want to save my new favorite NFL quarterback and his performance in the playoff game,

Trevor Lawrence for the last segment. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, this final segment of the show with Tommy today is presented by our good friends at Shelley's back room down on 13th and F Streets, Northwest, Tommy. Look, Shelley's back room is a business of many different businesses. Okay. It's like one-stop shopping for pretty much everything you want. okay if you're if you want fun shelley's is in the fun business if you want comfort shelley's is in the comfort business if you want food they're in that business great drinks

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Right. And some of the people who have... Mike Rizzo? ...humidor there. Yes, Mike Rizzo. DeMorce Smith, the head of the Players Union, has leased the humidor there. The head of NASCAR had leased the humidor there. And you can lease one, too.

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All right. So you wanted to mention your favorite quarterback from the weekend. Go ahead. Well, I mean, what Trevor Lawrence did was remarkable in that comeback. Right. And what really made it the most remarkable thing was the four interceptions he threw in the first half. Agreed. Coley said the same thing. The fact that he bounced back off the that was just incredible. Yes. I mean, that's the composure. That's off the chart. Composure.

You're right. I mean, imagine that were you and me. And when you four interceptions, I'd be afraid to come out in a locker room. Let me just tell you. There are friends of mine that said, Sheehan, you're 0 for 7. Why do you keep shooting? So I would keep shooting. But no, in that situation, I would be looking for somebody to take me out of the game.

I mean, and his second-hand performance was just, was inspiring to watch. It really was. But the most inspirational part was his post-game performance. What happened there? Okay. Well, to celebrate this big win, just like Ken, Kevin Costner in 10 cup. Trevor Lawrence went to the Waffle House with his friends.

Really? To celebrate the win. Wow. It was all over you. I was guessing. And you know what? We talked it into existence because a couple of days before, we were talking about Waffle House.

Right. Great place it is. Do you think he had ants? Do you think he had ants on his plate? Or do you think they... Oh, no. If he got the full treatment, maybe he did. You think they sprayed the place down?

I'm not sure. Here comes the winning quarterback. Somebody get the raid out. Let's try to kill these things so he can sit down and have a nice breakfast for dinner. It really says a lot about Trevor Lawrence that he would go to a Waffle House with his friends for his post-game celebration. I mean, he is my favorite quarterback in the league right now. Sunshine. It's it was, I talked briefly.

about this with Cooley yesterday. Did you watch the game from a bar without sound, or did you watch it from your place? I watched it from our condo with sound. So did you feel... Oh, God. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. I felt like I felt like I was watching two guys on Valium. Exactly. It was terrible. I mean, there was not, I mean, they should have been, they should have been like throwing stuff out of the booth for one of the top three comebacks we've ever seen in playoff history and I mean

it was so matter of fact it was Tony Dungey I'm not a big Tony Dungey fan period but I am a huge Al Michaels fan and what we needed more there was do you believe in miracles Al Michaels? That's the guy we got in that game

the I've been saying for a couple of years now and some of you have reminded me of that and I've been saying it that I was such a big Al Michaels fan and I've said for a couple of years running I think he isn't very good anymore. I think he doesn't

seem like he's into it. Like he's just not, he's just going through the motions and that was never Al Michaels. Al Michaels was super prepared. Al Michaels knew how to the call that deserved the elevation

of tone and voice the whole thing. It was like you said, it was like watching two guys on Xanax, like just loaded up on Valium or, you know, it's one of those kinds of, like they were out of it. Dungey for betters on that NBC Sunday night show has been Mr. Go against for years, almost to the same level that Jaworski was for years. I had friends that would just listen to Jaworski on Tony every week just to find out who not to play every week. But anyway, It was bad. It was really bad. The two-point conversion that they went for after the Joey Bosa, one of the multiple penalties that he had, and they put the ball at the one-yard line, and Doug Peterson decided if down 30 to 26, let's go for two, and Trevor Lawrence, you know, jumped over the pile with the ball in one hand and a short stack of hotcakes in the other from Waffle House.

but he he didn't know what was going on. He had no clue that the penalty was a half the distance to the goal and that Jacksonville, they had their offense back there and he was like, wait a minute, is it fourth down?

Are they going to score? He was completely lost. That's never been Al Michaels. Al Michaels, like Mike Tariko and Brent Musburger, they're the three that have always had a really good football center.

for, you know, time management and clock management and score management. And by the way, betting numbers, you know, Michaels has always known the numbers. Musburger, the same, Toriko, the same. It was the lowest energy broadcast for the context of that game, which was the third largest comeback in the history of the NFL postseason. I just think it's time, I hate to say this, because it's, I know there are people out there saying the same thing about us going, it's time for you two to hang it up.

I mean, I mean, three times a week, Sheehan goes, what was I going to say? You said something, and I can't remember what it was I was going to say. But, yeah, that was terrible. That was terrible. All right, Lamar Jackson.

The Lamar Jackson situation is so, it's such an interesting conversation, football conversation, relationship conversation, everything. You know, yesterday, he put, out on Instagram the following. Quote, when you have something good,

you don't play with it. You don't take chances losing it. You don't neglect it. When you have something good, you pour into it. You appreciate it. Because when you take care of something good, that good thing takes care of you, too. Closed quote.

This was communication from him for the second time in a few days. Remember on Friday, he put out that lengthy update. date on his injury and said, I'd love to be with my brothers, but, you know, I've got a grade two and, you know, close to a grade three, you know, very rare. You nailed it, by the way, because I was talking to Scott about this. Scott and I were talking about this, and Scott goes, it's just amazing how little information we know about this. And I said, I had my friend Bobby Trossett, who has a

Ravens podcast on the radio show, and he said, it's amazing that we don't know more than we know. And that, you know, the Ian Rappaports and the Adam Shepters of the world don't know anything. And the reason is twofold. One, you nailed it with he doesn't have an agent. So you're not getting anything from the agent. And then you combine that with one of the most tight-lipped organizations in sports. And the only thing we know about this is what Lamar Jackson has put out. That message yesterday is a message that indicates to me there's a real rift.

he's trying to tell everybody, look, I haven't been dealt with. I've been neglected. You know, I'm something good. You pour your heart into it. You appreciate that. By the way, RG3 last night on the pregame said that, you know, and RG3 was his teammate in Baltimore, remember. And RG3 said this thing is salvageable.

And he said the Instagram post was him talking about his injury. And Steve Young and Alex Smith and Bougar and Adam Schaefter and others are like, what are you talking about? Did you read it? There's nothing in there where he's talking. He's like, nope, you guys, RG3 said something. You're weaponizing his words against him and you're making it into something that it's not. I think he may have been confused with the injury report from the other day and this thing from yesterday. But the fascinating part, Tommy is, in so many ways, I think they're, without knowing a lot about it, I think they're both right. And I'll explain what that means in a second, but what's your

take on this Lamar Jackson Ravens situation? And you do know that he did not make the trip with the team to Cincinnati. Right. Well, for one of the towards, apparently, what was their last, their previous game? They were on the road. It's Cincinnati, weren't they?

Yeah, Cincinnati twice, yes. Yeah, well, he didn't make that that trip either. Just a little bit of context. Look, for people who said that he shouldn't risk, you know, being out there because, you know, he has a chance to get paid and all that. Look, I don't play football.

It's been a long time since I played nose tackle at Notre Dame. I never had a chance to play in the NFL. You were good. But, yeah, I know. But he's getting paid $23 million this year. Okay. And if his teammates thought that he should have been out there, like Sammy Watkins said, you know, then that's on him.

You know, and I don't know how you go back and repair that kind of damage. That's my take on Lamar Jackson, is that he's getting paid $20 million to play this year. You know, he didn't, I mean, they're not paying him a million dollars. So, I mean, he may have a huge payday at stake for his future, but he's getting paid right now. Okay. Now, but the other thing is, is what we're seeing in a way, even though there hasn't been that many leaks, the whole Lamar Jackson thing, a lot of people think the Ravens have not handled it well, there's been a transition in power in that organization in the past couple years. You mean Ozzy gone. Right.

Eric DeCostis. Eric DeCosta, his assistant is, and Dick Cass, their team president, left a couple years ago. Right. I mean, I think about two years ago. Okay, he's been there since the beginning. We're talking about two guys that have been there, I think, since 96, when the team moved from Cleveland, okay? And who's the, Sasha, Sasha Brown?

Is that the guy's name? Yeah, he's now the team president there. So they have a new hierarchy there, and I think that they haven't particularly handled this Lamar Jackson thing very well to let it get to this point. one way or the other. Either, you know, either by going into the season, I guess they didn't know what they were going to do,

and he certainly didn't give him any certainty to feel good about investing in him going into next year. But the Ravens are not the same Ravens. So... It's not the same organization. So there are a couple of things for me. Number one is this. I think that John Harbaugh,

in particular, could have made all of this just a lot easier because he was injured. Now, whether or not he could have played, you know, is a matter of debate. RG3 last night insistent that he was not, you know, able to play. And by the way, my guy Bobby Trossett, who does this excellent Ravens podcast, said that, you know, his sources were telling him that, you know, he's limping around the building, that he's got a PCL. And look, he's a running quarterback. John Harbaugh could have made this very easy on everybody by saying two weeks ago. Lamar is still banged up.

That knee is still not 100%. We need him to be 100%. We're behind him. We're hoping he gets healthy. He's not going to be able to play. This injury is not going to allow him to play in the game last week, in the game this week. And we hope to have if we can win, maybe there's a chance we get him back next week. We're not sure.

He could have said that. He didn't. He didn't, you know, regardless of the state of negotiations, he could have made this a non-story by saying, no, Lamar's hurt. He's not able to play in this game. We're not going to have him back. He's working to get back, which I don't know if that's true or not. And I don't want him to exaggerate the truth. But I think that's number one.

And I think Lamar feels over the last week, week and a half, you can tell by his public, you know, responses that he feels like there's, you know, this, you know, this narrative out there that he's quit on his team. And I think John Harbaugh has kind of lent, you know, a lot of ammo to that thought. By the way, Sammy Watkins did too. So he could have taken Lamar completely off the hook by saying he's got a grade two PCL. He can't play. If we don't have Lamar at his, at 100% healthy and mobile, then we're not playing him. we're not going to risk it. The other part of this to me is just the whole negotiation. You know, they offered them 133 million guaranteed 250, whatever, and it wasn't enough. You know, the Deshawn Watson contract has ruined things for a lot of people.

Now, there's going to be some big contracts coming up here, you know, in the offseason. Like Jalen Hertz is going to get paid. Daniel Jones is going to get paid. And so we'll see how the Giants and the Eagles in particular, and I'm forgetting somebody else in terms of a big quarterback contract. But anyway, you know, I think the Lamarck Jackson conversation is just completely different. Like I was listening to something late last night, people talking about it was after the game, and they're just saying, you can't win without Lamar. You've built your whole program around Lamar. And I was thinking, what have they? won with Lamar. And by the way, the last two years, he's missed like nine games at the end of the

year. They have not won, haven't sniffed the Super Bowls, which are their, that's their goal. Look, they're the ones that said, we're moving to this style of football. We drafted this guy. We're going to build it around him. We're going to play a unique brand of football. And they lost at home to the Titans. They lost in the divisional round of the bills. They didn't make the postseason last year, and they just got ousted because he wasn't available against the Bengals. If you're the Ravens, don't you, aren't you considering, how can we give this guy? Like Mahomes or Watson or Rogers or Russell Wilson money? I mean, Russell Wilson didn't get a fully guaranteed deal, nor did Rogers. Watson's the one that got the fully guaranteed deal.

The Watson thing, I guess we'll find out with Hertz and Jones, whether or not it's an outlier. I think it is, and I don't, you know, but I understand where the Ravens are coming from. Like, he hasn't been available in crunch time two straight years, and it's because of the way he plays. He's more vulnerable to injury. Are we going to win a lot of regular season games when he's healthy? We are. Are we going to make the playoffs a lot with him when he's healthy? We probably are.

Is he going to be an MVP candidate when he's healthy? He's already won one. Are we going to be sure that he's going to be available to us? A and B, when he has been available to us, we've gotten not only beaten in the postseason, we got thumped by Tennessee. We got thumped by Buffalo. And let me just point out, they should have won that Sunday night. Oh, my gosh.

They should have won that game. 100%. against a Bengal. 100%. Yeah. God, I was real. I was worried for. One simple thing.

One simple thing, if Huddly does the quarterback sneak the way he's supposed to, it goes low instead of high, you know, maybe they score on that. If, like J.K. Dobbins said, they give him the ball when they're two yards away with three plays down there. You know, I mean, they still, I mean, there's some real questionable play calling going on in that game from Baltimore, but they still should have won the game. I thought that they were the better team. I thought that they were the more physical team. I thought they took it to Cincinnati.

And, you know, we had one of the oddest defensive touchdowns and plays that ended up flipping the game by, you know, maybe 14 points, you know, maybe 10 points, maybe just seven points. Maybe Baltimore doesn't score going for fourth and goal. But Cincinnati then has to line up and play against that defense from inside their own one, you know, if Baltimore doesn't score. you know, what happened, we've never seen happen before. No doubt. I thought Baltimore, when they got down there and with the way their defense was playing, I'm like, if they punch this in, they're winning this game. And by the way, would have deserved it.

But I just, I don't know, like I think John Harbaugh could have really made things easier for Lamar and the team the last couple of weeks. That's a criticism of him. And then I think that Lamar has to, you know, I think the Ravens are in a really tough position because this isn't your traditional quarterback. You know, Russell Wilson got paid big money, Deshawn Watson got paid big money, Kyler Murray got paid big money. Even all three of those, they're not Lamar Jackson stylistically. They can all move. I mean, Kyler Murray was in a passing offense.

Deshawn Watson's been in a passing offense. Russell Wilson, you know, more of a runoffence, but, you know, he's asked to throw. Lamar Jackson, and here's the thing, the Ravens have also had a very difficult time attracting big-time wide receivers playing football this way. You know, DeAndre Hopkins didn't have a problem going to Arizona. You know, Marri Cooper is fine being in Cleveland. Like, I just think that it's a tough situation. Look, if Lamar Jackson were available and I wasn't a winning team, of course I would want him. Would I want to pay him $50 million a year and $185 or $200 million guaranteed?

No. But like the Jets as an example, you know, they have a really good team. I threw out yesterday, Atlanta would be a phenomenal team for him. With Arthur Smith is the head coach, with Tyler Algier, with Corderell-Carterol Patterson, with Kyle Pitts, with Drake London. they would be the favorite to win the NFC South next year with him at quarterback. So there are teams that may end up paying that just to have a chance to win 12 games, 13 games. But it's hard for Baltimore, man. They've seen him when he's healthy in the postseason,

and then they've seen them not make the postseason or make it without him because he's injured. That's a tough situation. Anyway, finish up with the other. Baltimore conversation for the day, the Angelo's thing. Well, John Angelo's had a press conference with the Baltimore mayor yesterday. Tell everybody who John Angeles is. John Angelo's is the control person for the Baltimore Orioles. He's the son of Peter Angelo's.

The team is owned by Peter Angelo's and his wife, Georgia. It's not owned by John. He hasn't owned one piece. How many kids does Peter Angeles have? Two boys, John and Lou, and they're suing each other as we speak. And Lou is also suing the mother as well, all about control of the team. You know, the sons don't own a piece of any of the team. John Angelo's was designated by Major League Baseball to be the control person because

Peter Angelo's is incapacitated right now. He's been on his deathbed for years, to be honest with you. and so they had this press conference to announce this scholarship program for minority youths on Martin Luther King's birthday, and Dan Conley, who I've known for years, who writes for the athletic, covers the team, asked John Angelo's about the uncertainty of the future of his ownership, based on the fact that, you know, the cases, you know, the family members are suing each other. there have been reports that the team would be put up for sale, which it would be if Peter Angelo's passes away. It would be put up for sale. And John Angelo's ripped Dan Conley for having

the nerve to ask him this question and break up their nice little press conference about the program that they were running. You know, part of the problem is, this was the first actual press, live press conference that John Angelo's has done with. reporters in four years. Okay? Yeah. So this was their shot. He was with the mayor of Baltimore,

who by the way, Brandon Scott looks like he's 25 years old. The mayor of Baltimore does. He was with the mayor of Baltimore. And John Angelo's basically spent about three or four minutes hammering Dan Conley for not recognizing the importance of the day, for daring to bring up such a subject on Martin Luther. King's birthday for being insensitive, for being out of touch. This is rich. I mean, if anyone's out of touch, it's John Angelo's.

And just ripped them for it. But then, like, John Angelo's, the idiot that he is, he couldn't stop with that. He could. Okay? I know. I watched it. He said, you know, if you guys want questions about the team, you come up next week, we'll open up our book. We'll show you everything we've got. What do you think the chances of him doing that are? Bingo! There you go. Every reporter in the city should be in that building next week asking to see the books, and a few nationals lawyers as well. You know, they should ask to get a look at... That's not going to happen. Okay? But, you know, he couldn't help himself with this obnoxious idea that he's transparent.

Look, I know this family. Okay. I know all of them. I haven't been as close to him as I used to be. But I know them. And if Peter Angelo's was upright and healthy, he wouldn't let John Angelo's near the books. Really? He wouldn't let him anywhere near the book. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, it just looked foolish. And, but here's the problem, which I wrote about my column last week, about the nationals and how the national sale is stalling.

you're not going to be able to fill the nationals until you figure out who owns the Orioles. These two teams are now combined. What do you mean? And it's because of Masson. Well, it's because of Masson. You can't, until you straighten out the Masson thing, you can't, you're not going to get the, no one's going to buy the Nationals. And the Orioles are Masson. You know, Masson may be a different company, but it's the same thing.

Okay. The same people, the money moves back and forth. and so until this team is put up for sale, the Orioles, and there's discussions with a new owner, and everyone can free themselves from this ridiculous massing thing, the nationals are not going to get sold. That's just not going to happen. The future of both these teams are connected.

Well, you read the story that in the post, Chelsea and Barry had that right now, it's more likely that they'll just sell, a minority share of the team? Well, I mean, I wrote that at the same time. Oh, okay. That the talks had stalled. Okay.

I didn't write that that could be the outcome. It could be the outcome. It could not be the outcome. But it's so complicated because of the massive. Just on the surface, for somebody to buy the nationals, they're going to have to probably pay the learners what they think they're owed from mass. Wow. Well, that's ridiculous. They're going to have to write that check. That's your...

And then... Yeah. And then their TV rights are still going to be owned by Masson. Right. So then they're going to have to write a check to Masson to get out of their TV rights. It's Ted. Ted's not buying the team to have that baseball team on another network. He's buying that team for 162 games on his NBC Sports Washington network. So you've got to write a check to Masson then to get out of the deal.

And that's before you buy the team. Right. So it's a mess. It's an absolute mess, and it won't get straightened out until the future of the Orioles is determined. Well, the good news is, I mean, they're killing it in free agency. The Nats are. Yes, they are. They should have one hell of a team next year.

Oh, my God. You know, their payroll is about $80, $85 million right now. Oh, my God. Jesus. It's really unbelievable. Rizzo is like an Atlantic League manager. He's basically picking up rejects from other teams and saying, well, we'll give him a shot here, but that's all they can afford, because that's all the learners told him he could spend.

Oh, my God. Are any of those prospects from the Soto trade? Are they going to, I mean, is it possible they all hit and they end up having a big year next year? Yeah, I don't know about next year. I mean, look, they got a lot of good prospects. made the best deal possible probably. Are we going to have a good team around here anytime soon? Seriously.

I mean, the caps run last night. The Wizards, I watch that. I mean, it's so frustrating. The cats are good this year. The caps are good. Well, they're good, but there are much better teams in their conference. Carolina, I mean, my hockey friends, you know, they tell me that Boston and Carolina, are just really, really good.

They've got to make the playoffs. They're a poor place. You got a vetting going for the record. Isn't that enough? That's, you know what? Well, he already broke the, he already passed the person for this year. No, I mean, the Gretsky record.

I know, but that's a next year or year after, you know, kind of a thing. Well, but, but every goal is closer to that. So every goal is worth celebrating. Every goal is a possible record goal. Mm-hmm. Okay. By the way, the other quarterback that I was thinking of is Borough. Burrow and Herbert, like, their new deals.

The Chargers fired their offensive coordinator, Lombardi, which tells me, believe it or not, Brandon Staley is going to remain as the head coach of the Chargers, which is interesting. From everything I've read, people in the know think he's going to be staying there. Yeah. There was, I mean, we can save this for later in the week. I was just going to talk about, you know, LeBron went for 48 last night.

You know, he's inching closer, Tommy, to Kareem. Yes, he is. We're going to have to do, you know, we're going to have to talk about we're LeBron. We've done it many times in the past. But when he becomes the all-time score in NBA history, that's quite a feat. I mean, even people like us, we're going to have to say LeBron is just, flat out worthy of being discussed is the greatest of all time. Now, for me, you know how I feel.

Michael and Magic come before LeBron in the non-center conversation. But anyway, we'll get to that when he gets closer. I think he's still like 150 points away or something like that. Could be, you know, could be a couple weeks or less than that, maybe. I don't know. Maybe he's 300 points away. So 300 points. He had 48 last night.

I mean, shit, we could be six games away from him passing Kareem. That's going for 50 every night. All right. Thanks. I'll talk to you on Thursday. Okay, boss. I'm back tomorrow. Jay Gruden will be on with me.

We'll talk NFL playoffs with Jay and some Sam Hal as well. Back tomorrow.